The Improbability of Love

Wonderfully twisty plot and no way to know how it would work out until the very end.
Characters I could care about, even the bad guys.
It was entertaining and funny, very sad and a bit scary, too.
I'd give it more stars, but it was repetitive. Unnecessarily so.

Best character in a novel ever: The painting in The Improbability of Love

A woman finds a long-missing, seminal but lesser-known work of art in a thrift shop and buys it without having any idea of the chaos that will unfold as a result of this small canvas.

I loved this book. Told in the third person, we follow the lives of several people who live and breathe art, the painting itself, and Annie, an almost thoroughly broken human being that in spite of everything just keeps plugging along, wanting nothing more than to cook fantastical feasts.

As the painting itself says:
"Let me guess what you are thinking. Girl finds picture; picture turns out to be worth a fortune. Girl (finally) finds boy with a heart. Girl sells picture, makes show more millions, marries boy, all live happily ever after.

Piss off. Yes, you heard me, piss off...

Life is not that simple."

Neither is this book. It's a twisty tale and ended up in places I didn't expect, and it was wonderful. The author had me fascinated from one moment to the next. People I felt sorry for at the start, I hated at the end, and people I thought were awful I sympathised with as the book progressed. Not everybody got the ending I'd have chosen for them, but all in all I was satisfied as I turned the last page.

I could nit-pick a few things: information I'd have liked to have, or characters that fall off the radar, or the ever-present copyediting errors, but really, I loved this book. I hated putting it down and I couldn't wait to pick it back up. Just looking at it makes me smile and that's what a 5 star read should do. I'll likely forget about most of the characters with time, but the painting, he is a character I'll never forget. show less

The Improbability of Love is Hannah Rothschild's debut novel. And what a debut it is!

The Improbability of Love is actually a painting - although the title can be applied to many of the relation. Annie's fourteen year relationship has ended, she is a talented chef, but works for two sketchy art dealers, her mother is a life long alcoholic and her attempts to find friends - and love - have fallen flat. When she comes upon a dusty little painting in a junk shop, she just likes the way it looks. She has no idea that it's a lost masterpiece. But others who spy her with it are aware.....the cast of art collectors, art dealers and art thieves is large and eclectic.

Rothschild has a keen eye and wit, skewering the art world with tongue firmly in show more cheek. I suspect insider knowledge has much to do with this - Rothschild is Chair of the Trustees of the National Gallery - UK.

Her character are all richly drawn and fleshed out. The art aficionados were by turns evil, funny and desperate. (Some readers may find this cast too large) It's impossible not to fall in love with Annie and hope that she does indeed find happiness and love again. But the character I enjoyed the most came out of left field - the painting itself has a sardonic voice - and memories. Through those recollections we learn the provenance of the picture and the details of the man who painted it.

Annie is a talented chef, using food as her empty canvas. Rothschild's description of Annie's meals and their inspiration mirror her evocative descriptions of the paintings and art history used throughout the book. Both were equally fascinating for me.

Clever, very clever, is the first description that springs to mind in describing this book. Those looking for a literary art novel with a distinctly satiric tone mixed with history, romance, dodgy dealings and more, will enjoy The Improbability of Love. show less

The Improbability of Love doesn’t fit neatly into a genre. It’s a drama, a love story, a history novel, a mystery and a satire. But mostly it is a book about art and the value of art both monetarily and emotionally.

Ms. Rothschild opens the book with a brilliant prologue which wryly captures behind the scenes at an art auction and then the cast of VIPs getting ready to bid on an art find of the century.

Then the novel goes back in time to Annie, a poor but accomplished chef who ducks into a secondhand store and buys a small, dusty painting which, unbeknownst to her, is an original Antoine Watteau, the French artist who revitalized the Baroque style of painting.

And so it begins…

Soon there is a large cast of colorful characters show more surrounding her little painting — unsavory art dealers, arrogant art experts, narcissistic art patrons, eccentric artists, wildly wealthy Russians in exile, and Barty a cross-dressing little man who makes his living instructing the newly rich on how to fit into society. Hitler’s art squad and a hidden identity also come into play, which adds more layers of mystery and intrigue.

In several chapters, the author tells the story from the perspective of the painting itself – this technique is fascinating in the beginning but gets bogged down later in the book as the painting tries to delineate its provenance from his starving artist through royalty, war and finally modern day obscurity.

I especially enjoyed the author’s characterization of the rich art patrons and their decadent and spoiled worlds:

“Poor Aunty Jo”, Emeline said with feeling. “She never got over losing Topper.”

“I thought her husband was called Charles?”

“He was — Topper was her Pekinese.”

Annie secures a catering job for a Mrs. Appledore, one of the wealthy art patrons and with a “sky is the limit” budget recreates a dinner from art history. The description of the evening from decorating the dining room to the countless courses in this epic dinner is a wonder of descriptive food writing.

That said, Ms. Rothschild really shines with her knowledge of art history and her evocative descriptions of the art works, their history and the impact these paintings had on people’s lives. She opens our eyes to the dirty underbelly of fine art – thievery, cheating and outright greed brought most of today’s fine works of art to museums around the world. But the reader senses the author’s overriding sense of love – love of artists, the patrons, the business of art and especially the beauty of art.

The Improbability of Love is a totally entertaining read — an accomplishment of wicked humor, counter balanced with war crimes — outrageous conspicuous consumption, mirrored against the reverence and importance of art in all its many forms.

See all my book reviews and musings at http://www.bookbarmy.com show less

The book starts on the night of an auction, when a long-lost and recently rediscovered painting by famous artist Antoine Watteau is being sold. The prospective buyers are introduced to the reader, and it is clear that there is a huge buzz surrounding this painting.

Cut to six months earlier, when a young lady named Annie McDee, who has no idea whatsoever about art, is looking for a gift for her new boyfriend, and stumbles across a painting in a junk shop. She buys it but has no idea of the adventure that this painting will lead her to. It is also clear that there are others who would dearly love to get their hands on this painting for more nefarious reasons, and at least one person is desperate to get it in order to stop a dark secret show more being exposed – and he is prepared to go to any lengths to achieve his goal.

I bought this book more or less on a whim, and picked it up to read with not particularly high hopes. However, I have to say that I found it utterly delightful and I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. Annie is a great character for the story to hinge upon – she has no idea of the picture’s history and significance, so she discovers it at the same time as the reader does. She is a hugely likeable character and very easy to identify with. I also really liked Jesse, the young artist who helps her in discovering the history of the painting, while quite obviously falling for her at the same time.

There are a lot of other characters – if this book was turned into a film, it would need a large cast! – but skilful writing means that it never gets confusing. I also loved the fact that occasional chapters were even narrated by the painting itself – it sounds kooky and gimmicky, but somehow it works.

It’s a great story, imaginative, often funny and very sweet and intriguing – I highly recommend this book, and will definitely look out for more by this author. show less

Wow, there's so many things I liked about this book it might be faster to say what I didn't. Nothing! Romance, colorful characters, art world intrigues, gourmet cooking, suspense; there's even a sliver of history from the Holocaust here. For a work that presented itself as a lighthearted farce it made a lot of very profound observations on love, family, and the mystique of fine art.

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

Beginning with the night of the auction of the painting The Improbability of Love, a lost masterpiece from the 18th century, this novel then skips back six months to when the painting is first found by an amateur chef, Annie. It then tracks the lives of all those at the auction as well as Annie (with occasional interjections from the painting itself) up to the night of the auction as intrigues, romances, and mysteries arise.

I honestly don't remember how this one ended up on The List so I'm not sure what struck my fancy about it in the first place. The writing is well done, the characters are well-rounded and believable, and the exploration of the art world and how we value art is artfully done. And yet despite the fact that I can't find show more any flaws with the novel, this one wasn't quite a hit with me. It might just be that it took me longer than it normally would to finish a novel of this length that has brought down my rating on this one. If the description strikes your fancy I'd say give this one a whirl but I can't emphatically recommend it based on my reading experience. show less